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There are a couple of highly specialised and mysterious developers out there, both made by the same company. While most people are drawn towards Diafine (which I plan on reviewing next year), Acufine is the cousin of that magic bullet developer. Like Diafine, Acufine’s chemistry is a trade secret; even the datasheets are redacted in that sense. But Acufine is a rare bird; it has the capability to increase the speed of most film stocks. But without all the drawbacks of push processing, increased grain, over the top contrast. While I have worked with Acufine before the stuff was way out of date, and IRead More →

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Let me start this by saying that DD-X and I have not had the best of relationships. The first time I used it I wasn’t happy with my results and decided that I was never going to touch the stuff again. But hey, almost every filmstock and developer are worth a second glance. DD-X, like its Kodak cousin, TMax developer was initially designed for use with the Delta range of films, specifically Delta 3200. Ilford has two versions of this developer, Ilfotec DD which is designed mainly for automated film processors that will use a dedicated replenisher and used in the stock formulation. White DD-XRead More →

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You’re probably thinking if I reviewed Kodak HC-110, why am I reviewing Ilford Ilfotec HC? Aren’t they the same thing? Well, the answer is yes and no. While Ilfotec HC is the Ilford version of Kodak HC-110, there are some subtle differences between the two. Here in Canada, the Ilford liquid chemistry is a pricey purchase and can be hard to come by. However, I chanced across a short-dated bottle of Ilfotec HC on a trip to Burlington Camera and decided to take a chance. Now, if you know me and my processing habits, you’ll know that I make a bottle of HC-110 last, soRead More →

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While these days the old standbys are still excellent choices to develop your film and offer up a great deal of variety there’s something to be said about having a universal one-size-fits-all developer. I first discovered this last year with Adox FX-39 II. But I quickly fell a rabbit hole of similar developers. And I’m not talking about Diafine, but rather Rollei Supergrain. Supergrain is an updated version of Amaloco AM 74. Supergrain offers up a series of dilutions and times that will develop most films at the same associated times. Perfect if you’re shooting a whole bunch of different films but have limited timeRead More →

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Over the previous year, I worked hard to expand my knowledge of black & white film developers and find myself down a deep rabbit hole. Some good, some meh. Some I didn’t care for or I found them to be too specialised for average use. And while I have several up for review later this year and you can check those out later, here are seven that have stood out in my head as worthy of using again and of getting you out of the rut of using the more vanilla developers like D-76/ID-11, HC-110/Ilfotec HC, and Rodinal. 1 – Adox FX-39 II Based onRead More →

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It’s funny how some developers just drop right into your lap. One of my readers, Jon Porter, wanted to know my thoughts on FX-39. And at the time I had never even heard of Adox FX-39, so I hopped onto my source for the rarer chemicals, Argentix.ca, and found that yes they did carry Adox FX-39 II. Is this new version any different from OG FX-39, not on the surface, it just has been adjusted to last longer. But that wouldn’t be a problem. I went through my first 500mL bottle quickly and in a couple of months. FX-39 is based on Neofin Red (createdRead More →

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These days it seems that photography Kickstarter campaigns are a dime a dozen. But the company with the most number of wins under their belt is Lomography. Say what you will about them, they can deliver on their promises. Sometimes it might take a swift kick in the rear-end to get them moving, but they do move. Now I’ve shot a fair number of Lomography films, most are re-rolled and rebranded. Of course, they also encourage production of other film stocks, such as their Berlin and Potsdam films that are both rebrands of ORWO N74 and UN54 films. But they also produce some wild falseRead More →

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When you think of all the developers out there, D-76, D-23, HC-110, DK-50, Rodinal, these are all designed specifically for developing standard black & white films, but there is another developer that often flew under the radar mainly because it proved so industry-specific that the home photography wouldn’t even think of using the developer in their own processing. That developer is D-96, originally created by Kodak for use to develop black & white motion picture film. But the average photographer cannot get small quantities of D-96 but that’s where Cinestill stepped in releasing their own version of D96 along with the Film Photography Project. IRead More →

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While the construction of the canal inspired a great deal of urbanization of the Niagara Region, but not all towns came into being because of the canal. Even before the canal came to the region, the area attracted a great deal of colonization in the days during and following the American Revolution mainly by Loyalists. Officially today they’re called United Empire Loyalists, and they formed the core of the original European population in Upper Canada, created out of the Province of Quebec. Quebec had been under British occupation since the end of the French-Indian War, and the government was maintained to match that of NewRead More →

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One thing that I enjoyed about the Sheet film version of this film (When it was called Ilford Ortho Copy Plus) is that some developer/time combinations had no film speed listed so in some cases I shot the stuff as low as ASA-6. So here I decided to test the roll film in the same way. And you know what? It worked! I selected five scenes and shot every scene three times, at ASA-25 (left), ASA-12 (middle), and ASA-6 (right) and processed them all D-76 (1+1). How did I go about making these frames? I used my Pentax Spotmeter V, in a couple of theRead More →